I am trying to find the perfect location to set up shop and later retire. My grandmother used to have a cabin at bull shoals lake in Arkansas. I like the area and I am considering it as an option. My question is whether or not Nw Arkansas has fire ants. I grew up spending summers down there as a kid but, I don't remember them. Those things love me for some reason. I may not consider locating in a area of loving fire ants. Anyone from NW Arkansas that can give me an answer ??

 

My guess is just about everywhere down south has fire ants.....MAN do those things HURT. I was at broken bow and I was cleanin some trout and I got bit....from the pain I thought man I must of gotten bit like 20 times, nope, 5 times is all. Last time I felt that much burning on my foor was when 3 nails went through my foot. They dont call em FIRE aints for nothin. Im with you, if they live down there, stay away! Move to Colorado lol. Twin Lakes is realllll nice.

 

I moved to Dallas a few years back and while unloading I stepped on top of a fire ant mound. All I have to say is OUCH!!!! I was never warned about them. Would have been a nice bit of information before moving there.

 

Hey Chiefsfan...watch out for the fire ants here in dallas
Just thoughtd Id give you a heads up lol

 

lol we have ants here in Fl but the killer insects you guys are talkin about makes me wonder....what kinda ants do you guys have there?? i mean the ones we have will mob you and bite you bad but the pain meter Wezol used to compare a bite was a bit diffrent than the discomfort that our ants bring....ive stepped on nails before and not alot of stuff hurts worse than that....we have the red bitey ants....they sting you with their abdomens sting....just wondering whatcha got there?

 

Fire ants make your foot (or where ever you got bit) feel like its litteraly been burned. Now Im not pansy by any means and I can take pain really well, these things hurt though. The nails didnt hurt too bad, they were all in one board about an inch apart in a triangular shape, I had shoes on so they didnt go in very deep, so its not like they went all the way through my foot or hit bone lol. I used to light M-80's on the fire ant mounds on my grandpas old farm. I learned fast that when you light them, run FAR away or else they will land on you....

 

ha ha ha.....thats funny...try some grits..that kills em pretty quick...and the best part its not poison....it swells up in their stomachs and kills them dead.....old grandma remedy, and it works

 

Ive never heard the grits theory (guess its more of a fact since it works lol). My grandmas always mixed up some boric acid and surup or honey and put it in a little lid and would leave it there till its gone. When I went to work on her house for the summer she had a small ant problem, by the time I left they were gone.

 

i live in the Fayetteville area and i have no idea what a fire ant is so i dont think we have them

 

Fire ants is the closest thing to visitng hell I have ever felt. I lived for awhile in the panhandle of Florida, 5 years ago and I still have scars to prove it. I got some no less pushing a lawnmower. The ants flew up from the blade , then on me and stung me about 8 times instantly. Also, while I was down there on two different occassions people actually died in Nursing Homes due to their sting. If you never met them- hopefully you never will. Makes a bee sting feel like nothing.

 

The only part of Arkansas that has fire ants is the very southern part. NW Arkansas will not have fire ants, because its in the mountains, and really no place for them to build. NE Arkansas doesnt even have fire ants, and we are pretty much flat land. The only thing that you will have to put up with in NW Arkansas is the ticks, and of course deer, and bears, and elk, and any other wild life, but as far as insects ....... ticks is the only major thing around here.

 

Growing up in Louisiana kids learn real quick about fire ants and generally only have to encounter them once to avoid the mounds. Biggest surprise is after a rain and the area where they had a nest floods. They will ride atop one another, and I'm talking millions, and float until they find dry land. You run into that group unaware and you will wind up crying like a baby.

Also when they start a new mound they are not easy to spot. Believe me you don't care that you are outside with neighbors around when you happen to sit down in that nest. You will strip butt naked and scream like a girl. Been there, done that.

 

Me and a group of friends were mudding on a power line trail when we got stuck pretty badly. It was the kind of mud that would suck the shoes off of your feet, so in no time we were all shoeless. Where the front tire had spun had cracked open the biggest, baddest colony of fire ants I had ever seen. Ants were everywhere!! About 1/2 of the hood was a moving mass of brown & red. It took us half of the night getting the truck out and my legs had swollen the next day from all the bites.

 

I used to play baseball growing up in Oklahoma, and while standing in the outfield during a game I felt like my legs caught fire--You guessed it right fire ant's! I tell you what, you will start taking off clothing in a big hurry and it doesn't matter where you are.

 

They all seem to crawl on you and somehow all bite you at the same time, its like an electric shock going through your body